Posted at 3:27 PM, February 28, 2025
and last updated 3:57 PM, February 28, 2025
FITZGERALD, Ga. (Court TV/AP) — An appeals court has thrown out pending criminal charges against two men previously convicted of concealing the death of Georgia teacher Tara Grinstead, whose 2005 disappearance baffled her family and investigators for more than a decade.
The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the statute of limitations had expired when prosecutors in rural Ben Hill County charged the men with crimes stemming from the burning of Grinstead’s body in a rural pecan orchard two decades ago.
Photos of Bo Dukes (left), Tara Grinstead (center), and Ryan Duke (right). (Court TV)
Prior convictions in the case weren’t affected. Bo Dukes, along with his high school friend, Ryan Duke, are both serving prison sentences related to concealing the death of Grinstead, a former beauty queen who went missing in 2005 from her small town of Ocilla. The investigation of the 30-year-old’s disappearance spanned more than a decade, consuming the small town in rumors and speculation before police arrested friends and former Irwin High School students Ryan Duke and Bo Dukes in early 2017.
New charges were lodged against Bo Dukes following Ryan Duke’s high-profile 2023 murder trial, where Duke was acquitted of murder charges after testifying against his former roommate, saying Bo Dukes killed Grinstead before roping him into burning her body on the Dukes’ family pecan orchard.
READ MORE | Ryan Duke, Bo Dukes fight new charges in Tara Grinstead case
Recently, Dukes challenged some of the charges against him in Ben Hill County, arguing that they were filed too late and constituted double jeopardy—meaning he shouldn’t be tried twice for the same thing.
In the recent rulings, the appellate judges sided with Dukes on the time-bar issue. They determined that while law enforcement had enough information to warrant an arrest as early as November 2005, the indictment against him filed in June 2017 was issued beyond the applicable four-year statute of limitations.
“We conclude that law enforcement had probable cause to arrest the two men by late November 2005,” the court’s ruling said.
Police contended they lacked sufficient evidence to make arrests in late 2005 when they searched the pecan orchard based on the man’s tip but found no sign of Grinstead. Nevertheless, the appeals court ruled that the four-year time limit expired long before either man was charged in Ben Hill County.
Ryan Duke listens as the verdict is read at the Irwin County Courthouse in Ocilla, Ga., on Friday, May 20, 2022. A jury found Duke not guilty in the death of Tara Grinstead. He was found guilty of concealing a death. (Court TV)
However, the court did not support Duke’s double jeopardy claims. The judges noted that the charges he faced in Ben Hill County arose from a different course of conduct,